Rap mogul Marion "Suge" Knight may be the ultimate target of a series of deadly gang shootings, according to a published report.

Four of the eight people killed in slayings that stretch back to 1997 were close associates of Knight, the Los Angeles Times reported in Friday's editions. Investigators have warned Knight to be cautious.

"Word on the street is there's a hit out on Suge Knight," said Det. Michael Caouette of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

Knight, who has been jailed since June 27, was given 10 months in prison Thursday after a parole board found that he struck a Hollywood nightclub valet.

Police and gang members told the newspaper that Knight became enveloped in infighting between rival gang factions in the 1990s. The rap impresario sparked further bad blood by firing a bodyguard who allegedly ordered several gang killings.

That bodyguard vowed revenge and joined with a drug dealer and fellow gang member also angry with Knight in an effort to pick off those close to Knight one by one, according to the Times.

The 37-year-old Knight, who helped popularize the rap of Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg and the late Tupac Shakur through the Death Row record label, told the newspaper he's not worried.

"It's not just my friends getting killed," Knight said. "Black men get murdered every day in the ghetto. I'm not nervous. I got no reason to be scared."

Among those killed were Knight's best friend and the creator of the Death Row electric chair logo.

"When so many people so close to you get killed, it's no coincidence," said Sgt. Fred Reynolds, another Sheriff's Department gang investigator. "If I was in his shoes, I'd be looking over my shoulder everywhere I went."

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